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Week 14 (March 28 – April 03) – Running 2,021 miles in 2021

After a decent Week 13, let us check out what’s in store for this week.

Day 88 – 03/29/2021 – 1804/278
The first run of the week came on Monday. Surprise – I got to run twice on Monday.

The first run on Monday came just before the lunch. I got a short window of an hour, before lunch and wanted to really enjoy the Sunny and Windy weather outside. Fortunately, I decided to take the shorter route to complete a shorter distance. It was a good decision as I didn’t tire myself and could fix a quick lunch.

The second run came at the end of the work day. It was extremely windy for the past couple days, so one of the soccer balls that I left on my front yard had rolled down to the fourth house on my street. I decided to run up to that house, but the cold air and the sunny weather felt so great that I couldn’t help myself from running a couple miles just around the neighborhood. This short 2-mile run brought the total for the day to more than 10K distance. Happy with the day and effort.

Day 89 – 03/30/2021 – 1800/277
The third run of the week and third day of the week.

I knew I had to run at least 4 miles today to bring the total distance covered in 2021 to 1,800 miles. At this point of time, I am not sure if I would be able to cover that much distance, but I still have hope and am still shooting for it. Let’s see where we will land in December of 2021.

The run was around the Northville Downtown. I took the Griswold exit on the 8 mile Rd, before looping around the downtown area. As mentioned, my pace dramatically increased through the downtown area and could see myself finishing the run just before 4PM, as I had thought. I felt extremely hot after the run and the cold shower definitely helped.

This brings us to the end of the month and I know I have slacked a lot since January, but I am happy to have covered more than 50 miles in the month of March. I still have 9 more months to go and I am a believer of anything can happen if you just work for it. Let’s see where the next 9 months take me.

Before you go, please check out the week number 14 highlights. I finished 10.5 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1800.3 miles, that’s 6.61 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!

See you next week!

April 21, 2018 – Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, CO, USA

Welcome to the second day of the Birthday week. If you didn’t check out the first day, you can see here how I explored the Colfax Avenue.

I reserved the half of April 21st to explore Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, as I had a flight in the late afternoon for Albuquerque, NM, where I was going to spend the remainder of the day.

With the busy day ahead of me, I decided to get up early and head to the Red Rocks. Fortunately or unfortunately for me, it was cloudy and snowy that day, so I spent the entire day at the Red Rocks looking at the gloomy sky. This gloomy skies didn’t do enough justice to the giant Red Rocks. When I was planning for this trip, I had a picture of this place in my mind, which was surrounded by the clean blue skies. Unfortunately, I couldn’t witness that. But, instead of bitching about it, I went ahead and tried enjoying the view and this amazing place to the fullest.

Even though I had done my research, I was astounded to find out grandeur of the Red Rocks. After spending at least half an hour around the different rocks at Red Rocks and going through some memorabilia in the building, I found out why it was called “Red Rocks”. It just blew my mind that the first ever concert was held here and paved the path for the modern day rock music and different live events and concerts and music festivals.
When I was driving to Red Rocks, I didn’t imagine it being that snowy. Having spent last couple years at Michigan made me get used to snow better, so it didn’t turn out to be a bad surprise.

I wanted to spend most of my time at Red Rocks outside, but due to cold and constant snow, I had to go inside the visitor center after every 10-15 minutes to keep my body warm. I went up and down the stairs at the Red Rocks auditorium, which felt more like an exercise to me. I didn’t mind it as I had more time to spend and didn’t have any other place to explore due to the weather conditions.

Apart from the Red Rocks, I tried exploring other nearby areas, but couldn’t find anything else apart from the white and cold snowy blanket as far as the eye could see. Before I knew it, it was time to head to the airport and catch my next flight to Albuquerque, NM, where I had planned to visit all the cool places from my favorite TV show of all time – Breaking Bad.

Next stop: Albuquerque, NM.

Week 13 (March 21 – March 27) – Running 2,021 miles in 2021

After running 0 miles last week, I am eager to get outside and run a few times this week. Let’s see how that goes.

Day 80 – 03/21/2021 – 1827/286
I started the week on a perfect note. The Sunday Michigan weather was warm and sunny. I wanted to enjoy the beautiful weather, so I ran with my shorts and T-shirt, which helped me clock in <10′ pace.

For this run, I chose to complete my usual route, which takes me from 8 mile Rd to 9 mile Rd. I turn right on 10 mile Rd, before starting my return journey on the Meadowbrook Rd. I started running on this route since December, when I moved into the new neighborhood and have loved it ever since. This route is longer than a 10K distance and I seem not to get tired while running on this route, as I have to stop at traffic lights after every mile or so.

I loved running in this weather and can see myself running more miles on this route in Summer.

Day 81 – 03/22/2021 – 1821/285
I ran through Northville Downtown for this. I wanted to run a 10K distance to keep up with my running goal, but when I reached the intersection where I had to choose to take either Novi Rd or continue on 8 mile Rd, I chose the latter.

The more interesting thing about this run was that it was the first time, I was running on 8 mile Rd in its continuity. Every time I used to run on 8 mile Rd, I used to take a right on Novi Rd to complete my usual route, but this time, I kept running on 8 mile Rd until I reached Taft Rd traffic lights. I saw the familiar Randolph St sigh at the Taft Rd intersection, and decided to head towards Northville Downtown for the remainder of the run.

One thing that I have noticed about my running in the Northville Downtown is that as soon as I enter the downtown area, my pace increases. I think the crowd and people work like external motivation to me, helping me improve my pace.

Day 82 – 03/23/2021 – 1818/284
This is the third run of the week. More impressive part of this week is that this the third consecutive day of running.

I chose to repeat yesterday’s route. The only difference between yesterday’s and today’s route was that instead of continuing till Taft Rd, I took a left on the North Center St, leading me to the Northville Downtown area. As always, I picked up the pace in the downtown area and could see myself finishing the 5K distance just under 30 minutes. The run was faster with <10′ pace.

Day 85 – 03/25/2021 – 1811/282
Thursday’s run turned out to be quite similar to the one on Sunday’s.

The route was the same. I went from 8 mile to 9 mile and then 10 mile. I took a right on 10 mile, before taking the last right on Meadowbrook Rd, finally reaching home, after turning right on 8 mile Rd.

I took 3 minutes more than Sunday’s run as Sunday’s weather was better than today. Instead of cribbing about it, I was rejoiced to know that I could complete at least 20 miles of running for the week. I know it is not a lot, but I think it will get better.

Before you go, please check out the week number 13 highlights. I finished 23.0 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1810.8 miles, that’s 6.47 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!

See you next week!

April 20, 2018 – Denver, CO, USA

Welcome to my birthday week!

During this time in my life, I was a huge Breaking Bad fan. I claimed to be such a big fan that I decided to fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to celebrate my birthday by treating myself to all the spots that were part of the show.

My birthday falls on April 23rd, which was a Monday, so the plan was to leave work early on Friday and return on Monday evening. I had taken the leave of absence from work on Monday.
It was very difficult to find the flights to Albuquerque from Detroit, that’s why I had to book a flight from Columbus, OH to Albuquerque, NM via Denver, CO. I had an 18-hour layover at Denver, CO, which gave me a small window to explore one more city and state and add it to my list of visited places.
I was really excited when I booked the tickets. It was very hard to contain my excitement just thinking that I would get to witness all the spots from my favorite TV show of all time.

The drive from home to Cleveland airport was such a breeze. It was late Spring and early Summer, so there was construction traffic everywhere. I had to wait 15 minutes in the traffic jam when I was 20 minutes away from the airport. It was frustrating as I thought I would miss my flight to Denver. Fortunately, it didn’t come to this and I reached Denver safely.

Upon landing in Denver, I rented a car and checked in to my Airbnb. After freshening up a little bit, I set forth to explore the city of Denver. As it was already past 7PM, I knew I had only a few hours before I go back to my Airbnb, have a good night sleep, wake up and get ready for my flight to Albuquerque.

When I was researching about the must-see places in Denver, Colfax Avenue was the first street that popped up in the Google results. I knew with only a few hours and just a long night ahead of me, this was the place I should visit and look for other attractions which were closer to this. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything that I could visit in such a short time.

It was 25 minutes drive from my Airbnb to the Colfax Avenue. Upon reaching there, it was hard to find a parking spot, which took about 5-10 minutes more. As soon as I parked the car, it was time explore and see what this street had to offer.

At first, the street looks like just any other street. I was like, this doesn’t impress me much. But, after spending a few more minutes on that street and checking out more attractions that the street had to offer, I was engaged in what the street had to offer. They had decorated the street with nice lights, giving more welcoming look. I walked almost 5 blocks of the street and checked out all the tall buildings that the street had to offer.

When I reached what felt like the end of the road, I decided to explore some other part of the street which was not on the Colfax Avenue. I was pleasantly surprised to find out some cool statues and sculptures in the area, which seemed like Instagram worthy!
I think setting low expectations played in my favor as I found myself to be satisfied at the end of this quick stop.

Anyway, after spending a couple hours, it was time to have a quick bite before crashing for the night. I had a long day ahead of me the next day, with some more Denver exploration and finally catching a flight to Albuquerque, NM.

Next stop: Some more Denver, and then Albuquerque, NM.

April 01, 2018 – Washington, DC, USA

After the first day exploring almost entirety of the National Mall, it was time to spend a couple hours near the US Capitol before heading home.

For our second day in DC, we wanted to check out the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, near the US Capitol Building. If you have been to DC, you would know that how difficult it is to get a decent Public Parking spot there; So, we were very lucky when we got a couple vacant parking spots right across the street from the museum. While driving around the museum area for the parking spot, we saw how long the line was to get inside the museum, which dampened our feelings a little bit, but were overjoyed to see the Indian food truck parked right next the the museum, between the museum and the US Capitol Building.

I cannot tell you how happy I felt when I saw the menu and immediately wanted to order almost everything on it. Having already had my breakfast, I shortened my wish list to Samosa Chat & I must tell you the feeling of eating a Desi Samosa Chat right before the US Capitol building is amazing and is not felt that commonly.

We spent a good 15-20 minutes at the food truck, before heading to the museum. I remember standing in line for half an hour before we got inside. I always wanted to visit this place as I had heard so many good things about it from friends and colleagues and I must say I wasn’t disappointed.

As soon as we entered the museum, I was thrilled to see so many cool things about the Space and Planes. I had always been fascinated with space, so this place felt like an oasis to me. I usually get bored at museum after spending an hour or more, but at this museum, I could see myself checking out so many things which I thought were cool.
We spent almost 90 minutes at this museum before deciding to head out to the US Capitol Building and click some pictures there.

We didn’t mean to visit the building itself, as we were not sure we were allowed to do that or not and it was getting late for us as we had 7-8 hours of drive in front of us.
We clicked so many pictures there and everyone of us had donned the Washington DC themed T-shirts that we had bought yesterday near the White House. Surprisingly, the pictures turned out really good and I saw my double chin in the pictures.

Anyway, we spent a good 15-20 minutes at the US Capitol Building and then called it a day. We got back to our cars and started the drive back home. During the 7-8 hour drive, we must have stopped at least thrice for bathroom breaks and to have food.

The two-day trip to Washington DC turned out to be really good and I had fun.

Next stop: 3-day birthday getaway to the great Southwest.

Week 12 (March 14 – March 20) – Running 2,021 miles in 2021

Week 11 was somewhat good. Let’s see how this week turns out.

Honestly, this is the easiest blog post I would ever write. I couldn’t run a single day this week, bringing the total miles of the week to a zero.
I know I should be disappointed, but I am not. This is a minor setback and I am sure I will get back up with more ammunition. I am just happy that I get to spend time with a lovely person, who brings joy to my daily life!

Before you go, please check out the week number 12 highlights. I finished 0.0 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1833.8 miles, that’s 6.39 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!

See you next week!

March 31, 2018 – Washington, DC, USA

After exploring the West Coast in the month of February, I laid down for a few weeks. That didn’t last long though as many of my Michigan friends decided to visit Washington DC.

Ever since I visited DC for the first time, I was in love with the city. I couldn’t believe that a city like this existed, which you can entirely explore on your feet. I loved how I saw people running, enjoying, relaxing, and chilling. I loved the fact that you don’t have to go far to explore all the important places in the city and everything seemed quite near to each other & how can I forget one of the tastiest Indian food places I visited – Rasika West End. Just writing about the last time I was here brings a plethora of memories.

But this post is not about my past visits, it is about the present one and more importantly with people that I loved. We were 7 of us for this trip – myself, Manju, Bhaskar, Ravi, Rohan, Surabhi, and Anupama. Washington D.C. is a 7-8 hours drive from our home. This hits the sweet spot, which gives you a feeling of driving on free and open American roads. With friends by my side, I didn’t even realize the long 8 hours drive. The drive was more beautiful with frequent stops on the road for food and drinks and off course for clicking pictures.

The more surprising part of this trip was our stay at the Airbnb. When we booked the Airbnb, I didn’t pay much attention to the apartment that we had booked for our stay there. Upon discovering that the apartment was on the third floor of the building, I was like, are you serious? We had to carry all of our stuff from our cars to the third floor of the building, which was a tiring task for me. Anyway, all the tiredness was gone when we looked at the apartment. It was nicely kept 3-bedroom apartment with enough space for 7 people. We absolutely loved it and were looking forward to spending a night or two there.

We had dinner nearby as most of us were tired and were looking forward to catching up some sleep and we had a long day ahead of us the next day.

The Washington D.C. exploration began with us finding a good parking spot for our cars. We knew we would be on our feet throughout the day, so it was important to find a free parking spot for the rest of the day so that we could explore without any worries. We found the parking spot a couple miles away from the National Mall. It worked well for us as we took a couple Ubers from the parking spot to the Lincoln Memorial, which kicked off the day for us.

Like last time, my itinerary of exploring D.C. was fixed. The first thing we wanted to check out was Lincoln Memorial. After Lincoln Memorial, it was time to head to the World War II memorial, while walking by the lake between Lincoln Memorial and World War II memorial. After the WWII memorial, it was Washington Memorial and finally various museums that D.C. had to offer us.

I was with different set of people this time, so we ended up taking more time between the WWII memorial and Washington Memorial as the area was filled with different types of Tulips and the city was celebrating the Tulip Festival. All the girls were busy posing and the boys were busy clicking their photos.
The crowd there was beyond our imagination, so it was hard for us to find a perfect spot to click our pictures. Anyway, the group was tired after the WWII memorial, so we decided to refuel ourselves at the Panera Bread location near the White House. This way, we would be able to take the much needed lunch break and cover the White House, which is located a little off from the National Mall.

After the White House, we carried on exploring more places in the city, but by 4-5 PM every one of us were tired after roaming on our feet. I remember falling asleep in one of the museums. I told my friends to go ahead and explore the museum while I take my nap. It was a much needed nap and I remember being energetic after it.

After we were done with the day, it was time to head to our Airbnb and prepare for the night. It was a fun night, filled with booze, food, and late night gossips and Chai. It set the tone well for the next day, when we were supposed to head home.

Next stop: Day number 2 in Washington D.C.

Week 11 (March 07 – March 13) – Running 2,021 miles in 2021

After a disappointing 10th week, it is time to gear up and do some serious running. Let’s see how this week goes.

Day 67 – 03/08/2021 – 1844/299
The first run of the week and I continue to experiment with my running route through Northville Downtown.

For this run, I took a long U-turn through the Downtown area to get more distance in for my run. This run was extremely beautiful because of the weather and 60F temperature. The high temperature helped me run on shorts and T-shirt and I couldn’t have been happier. During the last stretch of the run, I saw someone running behind me, and motivated me to run faster at 8′ speed, which helped me finish the run quicker than I thought.

Day 68 – 03/09/2021 – 1840/298
The second run of the day and lovely feeling to run on two consecutive days.

I wanted to run more today, but had to limit myself at 5K distance to get back home in time as I had some evening plans. I was glad that I could run faster than I thought (again) thanks to the lovely weather and 55F temperature. Last week, I remember going out for a run within two hours of my lunch time, which didn’t work well. Today, I waited for more than two and a half hours before heading out for a run, which helped me keep my pace under 10′ which is always a good feeling.
Hope, the weather stays like this throughout the week and I get to go out for more runs.

Day 69 – 03/10/2021 – 1837/297
The awesome Michigan weather continued for the third straight day and helped me run for the third consecutive day.

For this run, also, I took the same route and finished the same distance like yesterday. Today, I was a little faster thanks to a fellow runner, who overtook me during the last mile of the run. As soon as she overtook me, an inner competitive voice called on me and asked me to push for more. It was a harder thing to do, especially after reaching almost to the end of the run; But, having run more than 1,000 miles over the last year or more, helped me overcome that fear mentally and I could translate it physically.

I was glad to run faster and finish my run at an elevated heart rate. It was a good run.

Day 70 – 03/11/2021 – 1834/296
What an awesome week with a lovely Michigan weather. I had to wait till the end of the day to go out for a run. I used the same route, which goes through the Northville Downtown, for this run. I wanted to go for a longer distance, but had to limit myself to a 5K as I had some evening engagement to take care of.
Anyway, before starting the run, the Strava watch on my Apple Watch wasn’t working with me, so I had to use the Apple Watch’s workout app to track my run.

Before you go, please check out the week number 11 highlights. I finished 14.3 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1833.8 miles, that’s 6.23 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!

See you next week!

March 17, 2018 – Shooting Range, MI, USA

After spending a weekend in the West Coast, I took some good rest for the next few weekends. With nothing better to do on a weekend, my roommate recommended visiting a shooting range near our place. I had never held a gun in my life before this, so I was a little reluctant before partaking in this.

I convinced myself to go to this thing to try something new and which something I haven’t done before in my life. Trying the shooting range, I thought, would be an easy and quick thing for me, but I was so wrong.

When we reached the range, we were asked to fill so many paperwork. While signing, I was again, contemplating whether to go for it or not, but ended up signing on all those papers.

After the paperwork was done, we were given a 10 minutes class on how to refill the Gun Cartridges. For me, handling the gun was a big thing, so I never thought about refilling it. When the instructor was tutoring all the details about handling the gun and refilling it, I remember telling myself that the task which I had taken upon myself was harder than it looked. At the same time, I was paying close attention to everything that he was saying. I didn’t want to risk anything and cause an accident at the worst possible spot.

After 10-15 minutes, the guy who gave a quick tour of the shooting range, handed us two guns and some 10-20 boxes of bullets. I remember how they were calling it as ammo – which I picked it up as it sounded so much cooler. I thought that many bullets were too many to handle for me, so I teamed up with my roommate for our turn of the shooting range.

When I held the gun for the first time, I remember how strong I felt. Holding that gun in my hand, made me feel so much confident and stronger that I didn’t want to keep the gun down. That day, I realized why so many people love their guns and want to carry them.
My excitement of holding the gun was short lived when it was my turn to refill the gun with the ammo. I found it extremely hard the first time to put the ammo in the gun. Thanks to my roommate and friends, who helped me figure out an easy and quicker way to do it. I must say, it took me a few attempts before I got used to it.

The time flew by while filling the ammo and trying to shoot the bulls eye. At the end of our session, I was extremely happy to try it out and wanted to check it out one more time. I loved the feeling of holding the gun in my hand and trying to aim at target in distance. Let’s see when I get to check it out one more time.

Next stop: Washington D.C., USA.

February 12, 2018 – Orange County LA, CA, USA

This was my last day in California as I had a flight back to Michigan in the evening time. The flight was from Las Vegas, so the plan was to head to Vegas in the evening time, after spending the morning and noon in California.

I hadn’t planned anything for the day as I didn’t want to rush into doing anything on my last day at California; Also, I wanted to spend some leisure time with my friends.

The day started when I woke up later than my usual time, as we partied quite late last night and I had the time of my life – drinking and dancing (basically doing things that I like to do). I really had a good time and enjoyed catching up with so many friends after a long time.

As I was scrambling to get hold of my things in the morning, I knew I had to get ready quickly to get ahead of my day. Fortunately, the rest of my friends were still asleep, giving me more time to get ready and take care of my things. As soon as I was ready, we decided to head out for some shopping and exploring the nearby Brea Mall and then have some Thai food for lunch, before I bid goodbye.

The trip to the mall was ordinary. I didn’t buy anything as I had already jam packed for the trip and had no space to take something back home. After the mall, I loved the Thai place that we visited; However, I am having a hard time remembering the name of the place. I loved the ambience of the restaurant and I think I was visiting the Thai Place after a long time. I remember ordering some noodles and appetizers for the lunch and the pictures do the justice to the way they tasted. I had so much food during the lunch that I desperately needed a nap, but the time wasn’t on my side and I had to carry on with the day.

Anyway, I started my journey back home, driving to the airport and trying to catch the red eye flight to Detroit. The drive back was definitely tiring, but I had to get on the plane to resume my work at Ford.

This short vacation was over before I knew it.

Next stop: Holding a gun for the first time in my hand at a shooting range in Michigan, USA.